The Crown Coalition: Lizard King

NOVEMBER 08, 2012

Issue IIThursday, November 8, 2012

The Crown Coalition

Presents Lizard King

The King of Passion

Fly swatter (pop shove-it nosegrab shove-it). Northhampton, UK.

Lizard has had a very busy year that has involved a pageantry of passion: he released his second signature shoe, the Passion, he hosted his own Passion Tour, he’s holding an online Instalizard contest (that you should enter), he skated in the X Games, he toured Australia and Europe, and he’s just generally been handling his business and spending less time trying to handle the damages incurred from extracurricular activities. He’s a busy Lizard, but he graciously took some time out of his passionate lifestyle to sit down and chat about his crown.

I don’t care if I win, I want to lose or die trying something crazy instead of doing “safety first” tricks.

Photography By Shad Lambert

Explain the difference between “Business Lizard” and “Angry Lizard.”

Well, Angry Lizard used to come out when I was just wasted and I had hit a point where I hated everyone. Then, when I wasn’t drinking, Business Lizard would come out and just kill it, just super happy, and focused, and get mad work done. But nowadays Business Lizard is so biz that he’s angrier than Angry Lizard used to be. So I would call the old Angry Lizard “Sick of Everyone’s Bullshit” Lizard, you know what I’m sayin’? He would just get angry and disappear.

Feeble fakie. Satan’s Realm, Tuscon, AZ.

Gap ollie to Green Room slasher out. Quebec City, Canada.

Speaking of disappearing, you seem to be really good at pulling off disappearing acts. What are your favorite techniques for going invisible?

Oh yeah, I’ve pulled some power moves when it comes to getting the fuck away from people. First thing is just don’t answer the phone. If it keeps ringing, I’ll throw the phone across the room and won’t even look where it lands. Then I tell my friends to not answer anyone’s call who might be looking for me. After that options include pretending I’m going to the store and then just drive to Utah. I’ve also woken up in the morning with people trying to talk to me, giving me a panic attack, so I would just call a cab and go to the airport and fly home. Oh yeah, recently I was trying to go do a Zumiez Couch Tour demo and on the flight the stupid pilot saw a warning light and landed in Phoenix. We were all stuck there for five hours waiting for the plane to be fixed, so I just said fuck it and bought a different ticket home.

So what’s it like going from the weird Lizard kid that slept under the Hellrose kitchen table, to being the big time Lizard King in the X Games?

Oh! It’s quite a lovely service I’m providing to people, very entertaining, not boring. I don’t care if I win, I want to lose or die trying something crazy instead of doing “safety first” tricks.

Were you psyched on Tony Hawk announcing and being hyped on you out at the X Games?

Hell yeah, dude. That was the shit. Tony Hawk shouted me out, then I went to chill in the shade and Lil Wayne was all hyped to see me and slapped me high five. Then my mom was all impressed like, “No way, you know Weezy?”

Front board into bank. Montreal, Canada.

Backside flip. NYC.

What do you think about the Lil Wayne and SUPRA deal?

Hell yeah, backing it. We gotta get Lizard x Weezy collab so we can both get paid. Honestly I think it’s fucking tight that he’s skating, more power to him. He just looks like he’s having such a good ole time when he’s skating. Can’t hate on that at all. He’s probably just hyped there’s not a bunch of kids that keep coming up to him asking him to do the “internet kickflip.”

What’s the internet kickflip?

Oh that’s my number one request from kids all day, everyday: “Do the kickflip like on the internet!” Somewhere there’s a video of me that shows me doing like 20 kickflips on flat. Kids say it has like a million views, so every kid tortures me. I was at the skatepark yesterday and every kid asked me to do it, but of course I couldn’t do a kickflip for the life of me that day.

What are your other go-to crowd-pleaser tricks?

The good ole airwalk/scarewalk. Oh wait, I got those backside 180 one-foots too. Firecrackering stairs. Uhhh, maybe a one-foot backlip. That’s about it. I do those tricks at the demo and kids are hyped. Meanwhile my other homies gotta get buck with like kickflip crooks and shit. Oh and occasionally I’ll throw some tranny items out there. Done.

What’s up with all the homies rolling deep for the weekend skate missions going down?

You know we’re just trying to put the passion in the air and let it loose for the Deathwish video. I hope it actually comes out this time.

It’s a real deadline this time, right?

I thought it was a real deadline the last four times, so I don’t know.

Any predictions on who will have first and last part?

Me. I’ll have both. Is that allowed? That would throw everybody for a loop. I’ve been getting a lot of tricks lately though. We’ll see.

What’s it like to go from Hollywood Hellrose party house, to a nice five-bedroom house in the Hollywood Hills?

I don’t know, I like the old place too. They’re like the same, but my new house has windows. Mainly because nobody has jumped out the windows yet. Honestly I would pay rent for both places if the Hollywood Hellrose house didn’t get bulldozed. It’s the ultimate dream, like the movie Old School: have your party house down the street so you can rage, then a nice house up the hill so you can sleep. Because now I like clean living.

Yeah, you’ve been sober, Business Lizard killing it lately, huh?

Yup. Quit that shit.

Do you have extra energy since you’re never hungover anymore?

I don’t know about extra energy, because I’ve always been a hyperactive spracker naturally, but I definitely skate a lot more.

What was it like having kids send you over 7,000 photos for the INSTALIZARD.com contest?

That was only 7,000 photos? It felt like 700,000. Especially since kids know my Instagram name and would send every photo directly to me, too. Honestly, that was tight. Saw some pretty crazy shots that got me hyped. Lots of good energy and a lot of focus out there. Keep it up.

Last question, what do you think about the SUPRA team?

Oh my god, I think it’s the greatest, most random team on the planet. If someone would have told me when I was a kid that I’d end up on a team with Erik Ellington, The Muska, Tom Penny, and Stevie Williams I probably would have had a seizure. Our tours rule, thanks to all the homies, Dirty Klips, you, Angel, Scott Bailey, Brownie, and everyone at SUPRA for putting me on.